Mackie's of Scotland star in local film and achieve great Food and Drink PR

A group of students at an Aberdeenshire school have put their creative skills to the test to produce a film centring around one of the country’s best loved ice cream brands.

SIX budding filmmakers from S4-S6 at Kemnay Academy worked with Mackie’s of Scotland to film and edit the short film on sustainable practices for the Low Carbon Skills project for the environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful.

Entitled ‘Source Local, Buy Local’ the film tells of the brand’s journey to becoming one of the UK’s greenest companies.

Ms Buchan, a teacher at Kenmay Academy, said: “The Low Carbon Skills project gave pupils an excellent opportunity to explore environmental issues by looking closely at the sustainable business practices in a local food manufacturer.

“This project will have had an impact on the pupils in many ways. Some of these are tangible, for example in their increased confidence, others may be the seeds sown to help inform choices they will make in the future as they become consumers.”

Six pupils took the lead on the project; investigating the business, collating questions to ask and filming the short piece to highlight how sustainable successful businesses can be.

The film will be made available to teachers and youth workers as an aid to help inform young people of the importance of sustainability and the possibilities for implementing changes at every level.

One of the pupils involved in the project, said: “I enjoyed the experience and have learned a lot which will help with my studies. I know more about how business works and am surprised by the many processes involved.”

“The film making skills I have learned will be useful as I move in to a career in Drama.”

As one of a number of ‘Sustainable Stories’ that will be told as part of the ‘Low Carbon Skills’ project, Mackie’s path toward eco-friendly business was been often been a step ahead of their competition.

Ms Buchan added: “Mackie’s was an excellent business to work with. The range of sustainable energy initiatives and diversity of products inspired the pupils and gave them a wide view of how a business could make positive choices for the environment.

“Our school will use the Low Carbon Skills resource in Environmental Science and Business Management classes to provide examples highlighting local solutions to a global issue.”

Initially installing a wind turbine to heat a piggery, they were so impressed with the possibilities that their Westertown farm is now host to both a solar farm and yet more turbines – helping them to reduce their carbon footprint as part of their ‘sky to scoop’ ethos.

Catherine Gee, Corporate Services Director at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We are proud of the education initiatives that we provide for children, young people and educators which focus on environmental issues to improve understanding and encourage positive action.

“We continue to support priorities for Learning for Sustainability and Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce. By providing important real-life experiences we can help young people develop the understanding and skills required for jobs in the future.

“We are very grateful to Mackies of Scotland for supporting our Low Carbon Skills project and allowing young people to interview them and collate a film on how sustainable a successful business can be.”

The video will be linked to a downloadable curriculum enquiry to support pupils in the area of Developing the Young Workforce and Learning for Sustainability.

Mackie’s of Scotland produces over 11 million litres of milk each year, used to make its famous ice cream and part of its ‘sky to scoop’ philosophy – which also sees the Aberdeenshire firm produce everything from renewable energy to its own packaging.

Firmly established as one of the UK’s most popular take-home ice creams, Mackie’s diversified into making crisps in 2009, and chocolate bars in 2014.

Having recently added a dedicated £600,000 chocolate factory to its Aberdeenshire home farm, Mackie’s has achieved substantial new contracts for its chocolate, including initial deals with Tesco and Sainsbury’s, with new domestic contracts including the Co-op coming on board in 2016.

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